Baby killer Constance Marten’s cult life – ‘humiliation, nudity and exile’
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Constance Marten swapped aristocratic circles for a dangerous life on the run – but before her haunting life off-grid with Mark Gordon, she reportedly spent six months in a dangerous cult.
The couple were convicted of child cruelty at their first trial in 2024 for their baby daughter Victoria, whose decomposed remains were discovered in a rubbish-filled Lidl ‘bag for life’ in an allotment shed in Brighton in March of that year. Until now, there was an order preventing the media from reporting that verdict. Today, a jury at the Old Bailey also unanimously found Marten and Gordon guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn.
Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, had been living on the run in wintry conditions at the time of Victoria’s death. The mother told the court that her child had died after she fell asleep with her zipped inside her jacket on January 9, 2023, shortly after her birth on Christmas Eve 2022.
The defence team argued that Marten and Gordon went off-grid as they’d wanted to keep baby Victoria after four other children were all taken into care.
Those who know Marten previously told how she spent six months as a ‘disciple’ at a Christian cult – a period that friends say left her ‘confused and traumatised’.
In 2006, a teenage Marten joined the Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos, led by megachurch ‘prophet’ TB Joshua, who was accused of rape and torture following a BBC investigation.
According to the Daily Mail, after leaving her £30,000-a-year private school, she went there with her mother, Virginie de Selliers.
Joshua, who his disciples called ‘Daddy’, had a huge global following thanks to the ‘miracles’ he carried out, videos of which the BBC later claimed had been faked. In interviews with the broadcaster, one woman claimed she had to recruit teenage female disciples for Joshua – especially virgins, while others alleged they had been stripped and beaten with electrical cables and horse whips.
Joshua died in 2021, and SCOAN did not address the claims but has denounced previous accusations, stating: “Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated.”
For a 19-year-old Marten, aspects of life in the church are said to have been ‘humiliating’ – including being made to eat Joshua’s leftovers. On another occasion, Marten was reportedly placed in social exile as punishment for not being ‘focused enough’ on the SCOAN leader.
A fellow disciple using the name Angie was there at the same time as Marten, and described it as “a place of torture” and sexual assault to the BBC. There is no suggestion that Marten was subjected to either.
Marten was, however, apparently forced into gruelling work running the synagogue, all while living in dorm rooms with as many as 100 followers. After she was kicked out, Marten also reportedly experienced psychosis, and, on one occasion, is said to have collapsed on the floor laughing while in a Starbucks queue.
Nudity was insisted on, according to the Mail, with a source claiming: ‘If you were going to shower or get changed, you were not permitted to cover up or use a towel for discretion,’ said the source.
“You would be reported to Joshua publicly in a disciple meeting if you tried to ‘hide’ your body. So people were literally forced to walk around naked in the room. For many of us, this was an uncomfortable experience.”
Pastor T B Joshua, who died aged 57 in June 2021, was known widely across Africa and Latin America and was renowned for his claims that he could heal the sick through the “supernatural power of God”. Marten – whose friends call her Toots – is reported to have joined Joshua after she attended an evangelical-style course exploring Christian beliefs in London.
Content retrieved from: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/baby-killer-constance-martens-cult-32759469.
